i Light Marina Bay 2014 illuminates with increased collaborations

A strong line-up of 28 sustainable light art installations by local and international artists will bring greater variety and interactivity for festival-goers of i Light Marina Bay 2014.

Headlining the Festival are seven installations by invited artists, such as Celebration of Life by local artist Justin Lee, a projection piece on the ArtScience Museum façade that is a playful commentary on the role and value of traditional culture in our contemporary society, 1.26 Singapore created by US-based Janet Echelman, a large floating, fluid sculpture that imagines the force of nature of a tsunami created by the 2010 earthquake in Chile and resulted in the shortening of earth’s day by 1.26 microseconds, and CLOUD by Caitlind Brown and Wayne Garrett from Canada, an interactive sculpture comprising 5,000 new and recycled light bulbs. The rest of the art installations were selected through an open call last July.

This year, the Festival features a strong local line-up with about half, or 13 of the installations created by local artists. For the first time, the Festival will showcase installations by the Singapore University of Design and Technology (SUTD) and students from the Republic Polytechnic (RP). iSwarm, presented by SUTD, reacts to groups of visitors by detecting human presence and responds with its light pattern in the waters of Marina Bay. A Land of Reverie, a drawing using fluorescent paint and UV lighting created by Sheryl Ng and Nigel Ho from Republic Polytechnic, seeks to inspire visitors to play their part in creating an eco-friendly environment.

Five other local schools, Temasek Junior College, St Anthony’s Canossian Secondary School, Victoria School, Dunman High School and Singapore Polytechnic, have also come on board for the first time this year. #WeHeartLight, an installation by Light Collective from the United Kingdom, gathers the students to make simple light boxes that will be assembled together to form the final art work. Done through a series of workshops, the process of constructing this installation emphasises the importance of educating our future generation on sustainability. The full line-up of artists and artworks can be found in Annex A.

Raising awareness of sustainability through art

Organised by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the three-week Festival raises awareness on environmental sustainability issues through the theme ‘Light+HeART’. From 7 to 30 March, visitors can enjoy a visual feast specially curated by a three-member team from ONG&ONG.

Co-curator Ms Ong Swee Hong said, “Art is not passive; it has its own unique way of highlighting key social issues. Each installation in i Light Marina Bay 2014 acts as an agent of change, encouraging visitors to take action and make a difference in their own ways. With more installations that visitors can interact with, we hope to drive across the important message of having ‘heart’ for our environment, while creating a world-class platform for local emerging talents.”

Sustainability is a common theme for all 28 art works, which are further categorised into four genres:

· Interactivity through Collaborations: Through the use of technology, these artworks question how humans behave in the environment and how we interact with light;
· Collective is Strength: These artworks show the beauty of strength in unity, through the components of the installation or a group’s interaction with the installations to create symphonies of light;
· Questioning Different Dimensions of Nature through our Hearts: Inspired by nature, these artworks relate to elements of nature, allowing visitors to see them in a different ‘light’; and
· Sustaining Future Local Talents: i Light Marina Bay continues to be a platform for emerging local artists to showcase their artworks.

A platform for knowledge sharing on sustainable light art

The Festival will gather thought-leaders of sustainable light art and provide a knowledge exchange platform for its contributing participants and festival goers.

Visitors can look forward to a series of dialogues and forums by speakers like sociologist and art researcher Dr Sasha Kagan, TED speaker Professor Toby Cumberbatch, as well as local and international artists participating in the Festival, who will share their perspectives on light and art in today’s world. The detailed schedule can be found in Annex B.

i Light Marina Bay 2014 will open nightly from 7 to 30 March 2014, 7.30pm to 11pm, around the Marina Bay waterfront. Admission is free. For more information, please visit www.ilightmarinabay.sg.